This collection of articles, published as the fifth volume in the series of the Folklore Commission of Saxony-Anhalt state in Germany, deserves particular attention because books like this tend to have only a local distribution and are often overlooked in international scholarship. This edition is based on papers delivered at the meeting of the German Society for Folklore Studies (die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde) Commission of Narrative Research in September 2016 in Bad Kösen and Merseburg. The book addresses the concept of the “numinous,” referring to the mysterious supernatural power numen, and its divine and demonic expressions, as the notion was outlined by the German theologian, philosopher, and scholar of religion, Rudolf Otto (1869–1937), in his influential monograph Das Heilige (1917) (published in English as The Idea of the Holy [1923]). As an empirically oriented volume, the Numinoses Erzählen mainly discusses cultural and psychological expressions of the numinous, with a focus on storytelling, including not only folktales and legends but also films and novels. In addition, some articles in this multi-disciplinary, versatile book address psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic approaches to the numinous.

In her introduction Kathrin Pöge-Alder offers a brief reflection on numinous storytelling and the contents of the book. Next, Marco Frenschkowski discusses Rudolf Otto’s work and the reception of his ideas among theologians and scholars of religion, who tended to distance themselves from the category of numinous, taking a critical stand against it. Frenschkowski argues that the numinous became a far more influential concept in narrative studies, especially in the works of Max Lüthi (1909–1991), a Swiss literary scholar, whose research on folktale belongs to the classics of folklore studies. As Harm-Peer Zimmermann shows in his article, Lüthi developed the concept of numinous quite differently from Otto, turning it into a tool with which to study the aesthetics of forms of narration, especially the legend (Sage), which he characterized as a quintessentially numinous genre. Helmut Groschwitz discusses the pre-history of numen in the works of Jacob Grimm, who was interested in the pre-Christian elements in folk tradition in contrast to Otto, whose attention was on religious experience. According to Jacob Grimm, numinous is an expression of Volksgeist and a survival from heathendom, and can therefore be interpreted as a discursive element in expressions of modernity. The article by Fabio Armand, Marie-Agnès Cathiard, and Christian Abry is an example of cognitive folkloristics, and the only article in English in this German-language book. The authors examine supernatural experience narratives from a transcultural perspective and find a neuropsychological core in narrating the numinous. The first part of the book concludes with Stephan Adler’s study on the numinous in the works of Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) and in the practices of psychotherapy.

The second and third parts of the book are more empirical, offering diverse sets of articles on a variety of genres, forms, and media in relationship to the numinous, and as expressions of regional folklore. Ruth B. Bottigheimer develops analytical distinction between narrative genres. She shows the historic continuity of expressing the numinous in tales of magic from the ancient “Amor and Psyche” to Straparola’s Facetious Nights (1553) and to the genre of fairyland fiction and fairytales. Sabine Wienker-Piepho examines varieties of conceptualization of time, eternity, and death in folk narrative genres, and related fears. Rainer Möller analyzes the demonological ideas in the storyworld of early Christianity; Simone Stiefbold analyzes the scary image of "the black man" from traditional folklore to Internet forums and Slenderman. Ulrika Wolf-Knuts explores Swedish legends about the School of Black Magic in Wittenberg. She concludes that these stories express ideas about knowledge and mistrust of its unconventional forms. Siegfried Neumann studies the modalities of belief and disbelief in the legends of the Mecklenburg region from the Wossidlo archives in Rostock. Gudrun Braune examines legends and beliefs about fire in Thuringia and about blessings and other protective measures that help avoid fire accidents. Kathrin Pöge-Alder studies the uses of myths and legends in devising the touristic landscape of the Harz region in northern Germany.

The topics and authors above represent some of the theoretical and folkloristic articles in the book, which also has a lot to offer readers whose interest lies in psychotherapy, film, and literature studies. Proceeding from the concept of numinous, as it was theorized in religious studies in the early twentieth century, the volume represents successful transdisciplinary work in which folkloristics and folk narrative research have a synthesizing role to play, by bringing different approaches and cultural expressions together. The editors Kathrin Pöge-Alder and Harm-Peer Zimmermann have compiled a valuable book, which deserves attention outside the German-speaking academic world.

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[Review length: 765 words • Review posted on March 19, 2020]